


We Burned Our Bridge (Before We Crossed)

by katling



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Author is salty, BAMF Natasha Romanov, Black Widow in all her glory, Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Kinda Clint Friendly, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve Friendly, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-06-13 17:06:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15369261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: The Rogue Avengers return to the Compound and while some things are just how they left them, some things have changed forever. And when Natasha drops by to pay them a visit, they find out that burning bridges can be damned awkward when you find yourself needing to cross them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In case you haven't paid attention to the tags, this is not Steve friendly and not Team Cap friendly in general. However, Clint does show signs of not being a complete idiot so it's not all bad.
> 
> This was going to be a Clint-centric fic and I suppose it is since it's from his point of view but he was going to have actual dialogue and all. Then Natasha came along and stole the show. Sorry, Clint.
> 
> Comments moderated due to the recent influx of trolls.

Clint knew something was wrong before the Wakandan jet had finished landing at the Compound. While he’d never spent much time there, it was the somewhat… neglected look of the place that had his hackles standing on end. The lawn looked just a little shaggy and he couldn’t see any lights on in the building. It looked like no one was living there at all but he was sure T’Challa had mentioned that Tony and Rhodes and Vision were staying there. Then again, that had been months ago, just after everything had happened, so maybe that had changed.

The uncharitable part of Clint’s brain said good. Said that it was about time Tony stopped interfering in their affairs and stayed away from their place, especially after what he’d done to Steve and Barnes in Siberia. But an older, more practised and trained, more disciplined part of his mind – the SHIELD part – had started ringing alarm bells and telling him something was very, very wrong. He knew Tony was still alive because he’d seen him on the TV just before they left Wakanda, talking about something to do with sentinels. Probably some new computer program he was working on, hopefully one that wouldn’t go rogue.

That sense of wrongness increased however when no one came out of the building to greet them and it spiked when the doors to the Wakandan jet closed abruptly behind them and it took off, like the pilot couldn’t wait to be shot of them and was glad they were now no longer her problem. T’Challa had already begged off this trip, claiming he had urgent business in Wakanda that he couldn’t leave right now. Clint might have believed that except for the way his sister Shuri had been standing behind him, smirking smugly. Clint was starting to get a very bad feeling about this.

When they walked over to the building, they found the door unlocked and Clint’s instincts now began screeching at him and the screech became a clamour when they walked in and found that the light switches didn’t work. It was only when they walked into the kitchen in the common area and saw the massive hole in the floor left by Wanda’s violent outburst towards Vision that Clint began to put the pieces together, something which from their ranting, his teammates hadn’t yet grasped.

Tony had washed his hands of them.

T’Challa had told them Tony had handed the Compound over to the entity known as the Avengers during the negotiations for their return but none of them had really understood what that meant until now. Clint was betting that if they took a look down in the basements, they’d find that the arc reactor that used to power the place was gone. Certainly any trace of Stark Industries tech was nowhere to be seen. If Tony, Rhodes and Vision had indeed lived here, it had only been temporarily in order to oversee the removal of anything Stark related.

It was the click of heels against the floor that drew everyone out of their shock and their ranting and they all turned as one to see who was approaching. And when the woman walked in, they were all surprised.

“Natasha,” Steve said with relief. “I’m glad you’re here. We need to talk to Tony about this so he can fix it.” He gestured to the ruined kitchen.

Natasha didn’t answer at first, instead just arching a cool eyebrow at them all, and when he caught sight of the look in her eyes, Clint felt a shiver go down his spine. Natasha wasn’t here to help them, she was here to warn them off. If the look in her eyes wasn’t enough to tell him that, the way she was dressed was. She was dressed like Pepper Potts, in what could only be called ‘corporate power’. Her suit was immaculate, her hair and makeup perfect, her heels so high and sharp they were deadly weapons. Clint had no doubt she had at least half a dozen weapons on her but the greatest weapon she was carrying right now was undoubtedly the briefcase in her hands.

“I wouldn’t recommend that, Steve,” she said, her voice brisk, cool and impersonal.

“Why not?” Steve said with a frown.

“You mean apart from the fact that Tony doesn’t own the building anymore?” Natasha said sweetly.

“Who does then?” Steve demanded.

Clint shivered at the look of cool amusement on Natasha’s face. That didn’t bode well. In fact, he knew that face. No matter what had happened during the ‘civil war’, Natasha had done something very rare for her – she’d chosen a side. 

And it wasn’t theirs.

“You do, Steve,” she said, smirking slightly. “You and the rest of the Avengers.” She gestured to all of them. “Tony gave the building to you free of charge. The repairs and upkeep of the building and its contents are now your problem, not his.”

“Tony _is_ an Avenger,” Steve said and Clint thought that was the _least_ of what had been implied in Natasha’s statement and probably not where they should have started.

“Not anymore,” Natasha replied. “Not for months now.” She cocked her head slightly. “Don’t any of you watch the news? Tony, Colonel Rhodes and Colonel Danvers now co-lead the Sentinels, an official NGO operating under the auspices of the United Nations Enhanced Taskforce.”

Every word was like a blow because even if they hadn’t really been paying attention to the news, there had been enough discussion during the negotiations for their return to know what all of that meant. Their pardons and their return was _only_ to the US. Their operating remit was _only_ in the US. That had been made clear to them. As they had refused to sign the Accords, they could not be a part of the United Nations Enhanced Taskforce and thus could not operate outside the borders of their home country. Any attempt to do so would be viewed as terrorism and arrest warrants would be immediately issued. The Avengers might be considered an official team within the United States but everywhere else, they were just a bunch of lawless vigilantes.

“The Sentinels operate out of Stark Tower in New York,” Natasha continued. “This is not their home, their base of operations or any of their concern.”

Steve was giving what Clint felt was a very good impression of a stranded fish. “But…”

“What did you expect, Steve?” Natasha asked and Clint actually backed up a few steps at her tone of voice. She only ever got that politely saccharine when she was ready to rip your spine out and use it to beat you over the head. “Did you expect that after abandoning Tony in Siberia to die that you would be welcomed back by him with open arms?”

The silence after that question was thundering. Clint had never know that _silence_ could thunder but now he sure did. Because that… what Natasha had said… wasn’t what Steve had told them. Steve had told them that Tony had been fine, that Tony had attacked them and they’d fended him off and left, that nothing bad had happened to Tony. Natasha was implying otherwise and looking between Natasha and Steve’s faces… Clint knew who he was going to believe.

“What?” Sam said, looking confused.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Natasha said and now _everyone_ looked uncomfortable at the dangerous tone she was using. “Did Steve not tell you how the Winter Soldiers were already dead when they arrived? Did he not tell you that Zemo never intended to release them? That it was all a trap designed to bring Steve, Barnes and Tony into the one spot? Did Steve not tell you that there was a video of the Winter Soldier brutally murdering Howard and Maria Stark? Punching Howard in the face until he was dead then strangling Maria? Did Steve not tell you that we found out about this three years ago when SHIELD fell and that he asked me not to tell Tony because he was going to do it? How he _promised_ me he was going to do it?”

Clint drew in a sharp breath and suddenly understood why Natasha had picked a side, something she so rarely did. She took promises from those she considered friends seriously and she _hated_ it when those promises were broken. She wouldn’t have cared if _Tony_ had broken a promise to her because she’d never really considered him a friend – not that Tony ever _had_ broken a promise, if he promised Natasha something, he always, _always_ delivered – but Steve was a different matter. She _had_ considered Steve a friend so she would have trusted his promise. 

But Natasha wasn’t done yet. “Did Steve not tell you that when Tony quite understandably lashed out in grief and anger at _him_ , not Barnes, _him_ , that instead of trying to defuse the fight, he escalated it? That he and Barnes beat Tony down between them? I’ve seen the video.” Steve flinched and Natasha smirked before continuing, “Did you know that when Tony _wants_ to kill someone, they tend to die? Ask Stane. Ask Killian. Ask the Ten Rings.”

Now her expression hardened and Clint wanted nothing more than to find somewhere to hide. “Do you know what happens when you abandon someone in a non-functional metal suit in the freezing cold of Siberia with no way of contacting anyone? Do you know what happens to them when they’re stranded there for _thirty-two_ hours before they’re found and rescued?”

Natasha pulled out several buff coloured envelopes from the briefcase she was carrying and tossed them contemptuously on the floor at their feet. Her expression when she looked at them again was cold and dismissive.

“Stay away from Tony, Steve. The others will just turn you away.” Her gaze hardened and Clint knew the woman standing before them now wasn’t Natasha Romanov, former Avenger, it was the _Black Widow_ , the woman with no emotions, who killed without remorse. “I will make you regret every minute that you have ever lived.”

With that, she turned on her heel and walked away, her heel clicking ominously on the floor, leaving the Avengers still and silent and stunned behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, my muses decided to play ball so here is a bit more of this. And as you may have noticed by the chapter count, there's another one after this.
> 
> This is set directly after the last chapter and once again, Natasha stole the spotlight. :D

Natasha let the sense of cold satisfaction flow through her as she stalked out of the Compound and slid into the car that was waiting for her. Only when the door was closed and the car was moving did she let her Black Widow persona fade and relaxed back into the seat.

“How did it go, Ms Romanov?”

Natasha gave Happy a small smile at his continued formality. He didn’t need to call her ‘Ms Romanov’. He knew he didn’t need to because she’d told him many times that he didn’t need to and every time she did, he’d nod seriously and with great understanding and… call her ‘Ms Romanov’ with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes that always made her laugh. Happy had apparently decided that this was their ‘thing’ and since she’d never really had an opportunity to have a ‘thing’ with many people in the past, she certainly wasn’t going to pass it up now.

“We’ll see,” she said grimly. “I made the delivery…” She paused and met his eyes in the rear view mirror. “ _All_ of them. So now we see whether they’ll show a modicum of sense or whether they’ll…”

“Be themselves?” Happy said.

Natasha snorted in amusement. “Yeah.”

“Well, we’ll be ready if they do,” Happy said with a determined nod.

“That we will,” Natasha replied.

She felt something warm and cozy grow in her chest with the knowledge that she was part of that ‘we’. She’d never really been a part of something like this before. For the Red Room and SHIELD, she’d been an asset, a tool to be used and ultimately to be discarded when she was of no further use, and very little more. She’d known that, accepted it but it was cold comfort at the best of times. She’d thought she’d had this… this feeling of belonging, of _family_ , with the Avengers but in hindsight, she could see that she’d been deluding herself, accepting a false image because she didn’t know any better. Or perhaps because that’s what she’d _wanted_ the Avengers to be and thus had been willing to overlook the obvious in her attempt to cling to the illusion.

It was the videos from Siberia that had shattered the illusion. They hadn’t come from Tony’s camp, she’d known that much at the time. Tony would never have released them, never have risked the Avengers that way, no matter how he personally felt, and neither would Rhodes. Pepper might have but she’d been far too busy at the time. No, the videos, it was ultimately discovered, had been on a timed release set by Zemo. One last hurl of the dagger to ensure that the Avengers died as thoroughly as his family had.

Natasha had been hiding in a tiny motel in near Germany’s border with Poland when they’d been released, on the run from the UN for her actions at the airport and trying to decide what she was going to do. She’d watched them with a growing sense of horror… and then anger as she saw that look of sheer and utter betrayal on Tony’s face. Tony hadn’t known. Steve hadn’t told him. Even after promising her he would. It made her feel stupid and she _hated_ that. She’d trusted Steve and then she’d believed him when he’d explained that Tony’s decision to step back from the Avengers was because he wanted time and space to deal with the revelation. She’d _believed_ him. 

She’d be angry at him for fooling her but had he really? Or had she just wanted to believe that because it was easier? Because Tony could be difficult for her. Because his eyes were sharp and his mind sharper and he liked figuring puzzles out and wasn’t the former spy and Black Widow just the ultimate puzzle? She hadn’t wanted to give him the opportunity to figure her out because the very idea of it scared the hell out of her. So she’d let herself believe Steve. Let herself be gulled by his big, blue eyes when she should have known better.

She’d returned to Germany, to speak to Rhodes, to throw herself on the mercy of the Accords Council when the news had come. Tony was missing. He’d gone to the Raft to speak to the others and no one had seen him or heard from him since and with the release of the videos, people were starting to worry because although that second video cut off before the end of the fight, it had clearly not been going well for Tony, fighting one against two. When she’d arrived in Berlin, it had been nineteen hours since he’d gone missing and four since the videos had been released. She had suggested speaking to the others in the Raft to see what they knew but even as she’d been suggesting that, Steve and Barnes had been breaking them out. In the end, it had taken FRIDAY overstepping the boundaries Tony had wrapped her in that traced the last known position of the armour.

Natasha had gone with Vision and the SI team to find him and by the time they’d gotten there, thirty three hours had passed. Tony had been unconscious, trapped in armour coated in frost and ice, and Natasha had known that there was no way they were going to be bringing _all_ of him home. From the look on Vision’s face, he’d known that too. There had been nothing they could do though, other than to gather Tony up along with the abandoned shield and the blown off arm and take them all home.

In the quinjet on the way home, with Tony’s head resting in her lap, she’d done something so rare for her – she’d chosen a side. Looking down at Tony’s unconscious, battered face and knowing that this was, in part, her fault for abandoning him because she hadn’t wanted to face the truth about Steve, she made a choice. SHIELD had never been a choice, it had been a necessity and a sanctuary of a sort. The Avengers had been a desire to have something she’d always wanted but not really a choice. This though… this was a conscious, sober choice.

Not that it had been easy. Rhodes and Pepper hadn’t been inclined to trust her and the UN had been angry about her decisions at the airport. Without Tony to vouch for her, if he’d even have been willing after what she’d last said to him, it had taken all her skills at persuasion to avoid any real consequences. But she did remember what the chair of the Council said to her – this was her last chance. Should she turn her coat one more time, the Council would not just abandon her, they’d throw her to the wolves. They didn’t know about her choice and she’d seen no reason to enlighten them. They wouldn’t understand what it meant.

So she’d stayed. She’d stayed through the multiple surgeries Tony had undergone, through the world’s recriminations over the whole civil war mess, through Tony’s pain-filled, drug-slurred accusations and hurtful words. She’d stayed through it all. She’d helped wherever she could. She’d stood by first Pepper and Rhodes as they stage-managed whatever they could to protect Tony and then she’d stood beside Tony as he slowly, painfully, carefully rebuilt the team into something new and better, as he abandoned the Avengers and constructed the Sentinels. There had been harsh words and arguments but in the end, she had something she had learned to value above anything else – Tony’s trust.

“He knows, doesn’t he?” she said, looking at Happy as he drove her towards New York. “That I included the photos in with the legal documents I was delivering.”

Happy nodded. “He does.”

“He didn’t stop me.”

“He thought about it.” Happy shrugged. “But in the end, he felt that… well, you probably have a better read on them than he ever did so if you think it would be valuable to show them those photos, then he’d trust you.”

Natasha closed her eyes and smiled, wrapping the warmth that those words engendered close to her. “I’m not sure they’ll make a dent in Steve’s view of the world. Or Wanda’s,” she admitted, opening her eyes again. “But the others…” She nodded, more to herself than anything else. “Yes, the others will see them and those pictures will be seared into their minds.”

“Do you really think it’ll make a difference?” Happy asked, looking dubious.

“Not in the short term,” Natasha admitted. “But in the long term, yes. What the definition of long term is will differ for each of them but… I think we’ll get some defections sooner rather than later.”

“Lang, Wilson…” Happy began. He grimaced. “Barton?”

Their scepticism about Clint hurt but she couldn’t deny it was warranted. She’d gotten her hands on the footage of Tony’s visit to the Raft and heard what Clint had said. He’d burned a bridge that day, even if he didn’t realise it. Or care about it. Tony would let attacks on himself wash off him like water off a duck’s back but an attack on Rhodes, on his _platypus_? That was unforgivable.

“Lang, yes. Wilson… possibly,” she said. “Clint…” She sighed. “I hope so.”

Happy grunted. “What then? After the defections? You’ve been cagey about that when the boss is around.”

Natasha was silent for a moment, giving Happy an assessing look. Happy was intensely loyal to Tony but that didn’t mean he was a tattletale. She’d been considering bringing him into the next part of her plan for a while. Pepper had assured her that Happy was trustworthy and knew when to tell Tony things and when not to. Natasha had been more cautious because Happy had taken longer than some of the others to trust her.

“Maximoff,” she finally said.

Happy gave her a long look in the rear view mirror. “You’ve got something on her.”

It wasn’t a question but Natasha nodded anyway. “I have footage and files from Sokovia and HYDRA. I also have footage from the Tower and from the quinjet as well as from the Iron Man armour when we were in Sokovia originally, taking down the HYDRA base.”

Happy’s glance into the rear view mirror at her this time was hard and intense then as she watched, she saw things click into place in his mind. Happy might give off the vibes of an amiable meathead (and he did act like that sometimes) but he wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t have lasted long with Tony if he was.

“FRIDAY dug up the footage,” he said.

Natasha nodded. “Once I told her what it was for and Pepper okayed it, she was very helpful.”

Now it was Happy who nodded slowly. “So how deep is it going to bury Maximoff?”

“Deeper than I thought it would,” Natasha admitted. “Though perhaps not as deep as she deserves.”

Happy was silent as he considered that. “Good.”

Natasha’s smirk was not kind and the answering smirk from the man behind the wheel matched it. Natasha had chosen a side and she was the Black Widow. Steve and his friends were about to discover what that truly meant.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of this little arc... or in other words, the one person we haven't seen yet - Tony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea where the Tony & Loki thing came from. It just happened.
> 
> Also, there's a bit of... not precisely unreliable narrator going on but more that people often have different perspectives of the same event and Natasha is in the mood to present things more positively to Tony than she did to Happy.
> 
> Oh, and there's some handwavey medical mentions here. Just wave your hands and pretend that comic book science is a thing.

Tony was surrounded by a lot of very feisty people. That was the word he’d decided on. Feisty. It was a fun word to say, didn’t make people want to stab him when he called them that and it was pretty descriptive. He wasn’t objecting to being surrounded by feisty people, though he did occasionally get a little exasperated and even a touch embarrassed when they got all feisty on his behalf. Not that he thought he was unworthy of being defended – therapy was good for derailing thoughts like that – but he just didn’t think it was a productive use of their time when they could be being feisty about better things.

Natasha was not to be dissuaded however. Given she had Pepper and Rhodey backing her up along with every single one of the Sentinels… well, Tony knew when to pick his fights and this was not one he was ever going to win. And if it secretly made him feel a bit warm and gooey inside, that was his business and no one else ever needed to know about it.

 _I know, boss_ , FRIDAY teased, her voice lilting softly in the back of his head.

Tony chuckled and brushed a gentle caress across her programming. Despite the advantages he now had, he’d never intended to use Extremis. He’d worked on it, sure. Had even developed a last-resort-only version that came with a new arc reactor and a shit ton of nanotech. But he’d never expected to have to use it or really ever intended to use it.

Siberia had changed that. Siberia had changed a lot of things but that had been the biggest personal change Tony had faced. Once the sounds of Rogers and his BFF walking away had faded and the adrenaline had worn off, Tony had realised he was in big trouble. In the end, the same thing that had ultimately saved him had also damned him – the cold.

When the temperature had dropped sharply in the Siberian night, his body had shut down. Not died but had gone into a strange sort of hibernation. It would have killed him sooner rather than later in spite of that, so the doctors had told him, but for the thirty-three hours it took for rescue to come, it had saved him.

Most of him anyway.

Frostbite was a bitch and had no respect for billionaire philanthropists masquerading as heroes.

He’d lost both hands, one to the wrist and the other to halfway up his forearm, and one foot up to the ankle, as well as three toes from his other foot. He’d have lost his nose as well if not for Extremis. There’d been enough skin and tissue left alive for Extremis to use to save his nose but not his hands or feet. The best Extremis had been able to do there was limit the amount of his limbs that had to be amputated.

He’d been a pretty pathetic sight in the days after his return from Siberia – no hands, only half a foot left, a new arc reactor in his chest. He’d wallowed in self-pity and anger and despair for about a week. Partly because he felt he damn well deserved that time to wallow but mostly because he’d needed that week to assimilate everything that Extremis had done and given him.

 _I kicked your ass out of it though, boss_ , FRIDAY said, still teasing.

 _Yeah, you did, baby girl_ , he replied.

And she had too. He’d been enjoying his wallowing, even if it was worrying Pepper and Rhodey, but FRIDAY had wriggled into his mind and booted him up the backside to get out there and be Tony fucking Stark again.

He held up one hand and turned it back and forth. Nanotech, courtesy of Extremis and his own brand of genius. Indistinguishable from the rest of his flesh and blood self unless he wanted it to look mechanical. Mostly he kept it indistinguishable. Not because he didn’t want people knowing but once the world knew, they were going to want to know why. And how. And after the videos, that was going to be a clusterfuck of epic proportions. And all of that… was a conversation, he wasn’t quite ready to have.

It was going to come sooner rather than later though, especially now that Natasha had decided to go all Black Widow on their former teammates’ asses.

He’d been surprised to find Natasha there once he’d finished wallowing and was back on his new, mostly fake feet. He’d known about the release of the videos but hadn’t expected it to make much of a difference to her after her little performance at the airport. But she’d been there and what’s more, she’d hadn’t tried to deflect any of his pointed barbs or try any of her own. She’d just… taken his recriminations and let her actions speak for her.

It had been almost three months before he’d been ready to talk to her properly. In all that time, she’d stood by him and backed him up. She’d taken her chastisement for her breach of the Accords and the subsequent loss of trust. She’d backed his plays, even when it had meant dissolving the Avengers and starting something new in the Sentinels. And when they’d finally had that discussion, she hadn’t backed down from his anger and had explained what she could, even been angry herself – _at_ herself – for Steve’s lies and betrayal.

What’s more she’d continued to be… well, the best way he could describe it was less Natashalie and more Natasha. He’d been reluctant to trust her after everything that had happened but when he had, she’d repaid that trust instead of stomping on it. He was even prepared to say they were friends now.

Which was a large part of why he hadn’t interfered with her plans for their former teammates. He’d be the first to admit that she probably knew them better than he ever had and if she felt this was the way it should happen, who was he to argue?

Also? He kind of felt they deserved it. And wasn’t that a big step in his personal development. His therapist definitely deserved the money he paid her.

_Ms Romanov is back, boss, and asking if you’re available._

That was a nice change with his new team ( _friends_ ). They didn’t expect him to be immediately available whenever they wanted. They asked if he was available and were willing to wait if he wasn’t.

_Yeah, tell her to come down. I’m just contemplating my navel here._

_There are worse things to be doing_ , FRIDAY replied, sounding amused. _She’s on her way._

Tony sat up and swivelled around and was waiting when Natasha walked in the door. He raised an eyebrow at what she was wearing and she smirked right back at him before kicking off her heels with a sigh of relief.

“Ugh, I don’t know how Pepper wears these all day, every day,” she said, picking her discarded heels up and walking over to sit down on a stool on the other side of the bench where Tony was.

“Pepper is a goddess among women,” Tony replied. “That’s how.”

Natasha paused and considered that. “Point,” she said with a small smile.

Tony rocked back in his chair and raised an eyebrow at her. “So?”

“I thought you didn’t want to know,” she said coyly.

“I didn’t,” Tony replied. “But you’ve got me all curious now. You took the photos with you.”

“You didn’t stop me,” Natasha said, raising a questioning eyebrow at him.

Tony shrugged. “I probably can’t stop them from knowing and you seemed pretty confident.”

“I am,” she replied. “Wilson and Lang will turn. Maybe Clint.”

“But not Rogers and Maximoff?” Natasha just gave him a look and he grinned. “Yeah, didn’t think so. You didn’t mention Barnes.”

“He wasn’t with them,” she said and Tony blinked. She then clearly waited for him to access to relevant information.

“Oh,” he said. “Why did I miss that?”

“Because you were deliberately not paying attention,” Natasha replied. “Aggressively ignoring all of it, in fact. And since we all thought that was a good idea, no one bothered to shove anything at you.”

“Huh,” Tony said. “So Barnes stayed in Wakanda.”

“At T’Challa’s invitation.”

“Bet he didn’t invite any of the others to stay,” Tony said with a smirk.

Natasha matched his smirk. “Couldn’t get rid of them fast enough.”

“But Barnes stayed and Rogers left,” Tony mused. It wasn’t what he’d expected, not after all the carnage Rogers had caused in the name of Barnes.

“Steve didn’t have much of a choice.”

“I’ll bet,” Tony replied with a chuckle. He’d heard from Rhodey about T’Challa’s increasingly sour attitude towards his unwanted and uninvited guests. “How’d they take the news about the Compound?”

“I don’t think it sank in,” Natasha said. “But I’m sure it will when they try to turn on the lights.”

“That place is a pig to run,” Tony said. “I feel kind of bad.”

Natasha gave him a sharp look. “Tony…”

He held up one hand. “Only a little bit bad.” He put his thumb and forefinger together with only a hairsbreadth of space between them. “This bad.”

Natasha laughed. “Idiot.”

“No, seriously,” Tony replied, grinning. “Did they really think they’d come back and I’d play their sugar daddy again.”

“Yes, they did.” Natasha snorted. “They really, really did and they’re quite offended that you’re not.”

“Well, too bad,” Tony replied. “My days as a sugar daddy are over.”

“But _Tony_ ,” Natasha said, shifting to a more seductive pose and a breathy, sexy tone of voice.

“Gah!” Tony pretended to reel backwards in horror. “Ms Romanov! How dare you try to take advantage of me!”

Natasha laughed and shifted back to how she’d been. “It didn’t work back when you thought I was Natalie Rushman.”

“You tried your best,” Tony said sympathetically. “But, you know, I was dying so I had other things on my mind.”

“Pity.” Her expression became so bland that Tony knew to brace himself for whatever was going to come next. Then she smirked. “I’ve seen your sex tapes. You’re very… _flexible_.”

Tony spluttered with laughter and shook a finger at her. “You are an evil woman, Natasha Romanov, and I was a much younger man back then who didn’t have his own personal nightlight in his chest.”

“I thought I was in with a chance for a moment,” Natasha said then she turned very dry. “But you were just trying to make Pepper jealous.”

Tony sighed. “Ah, the good old days.”

He and Pepper had finally agreed it just wasn’t going to work between them. They were both disappointed about that, neither really being the type who liked giving up, but they both also knew that if they kept going, they were going to end up hating each other and neither wanted that. It had taken a few months of awkwardness but they were back to being friends… and perhaps better friends than they’d been before.

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him again. “Speaking of the good old days, are you ever going to do anything about that thing going on between you and Loki?”

Now Tony’s spluttering wasn’t an act. “There is no _thing_ going on with Loki and you, evil woman, are trying to distract me from asking about what it is you’re planning next.”

“Yes, I am,” Natasha said sweetly. “Is it working?”

“No, because we are not discussing Loki,” Tony said. “He is a non-discussion.”

“That will disappoint him,” Natasha said calmly. “You know how he hates being a non-discussion.”

“There is _nothing_ going on with Loki,” Tony repeated. “Why does everyone think there is?”

Natasha gave him an amused look. “Oh, I don’t know, perhaps the rampant flirting you two indulge in every time you spend more than five minutes together.”

“That’s not flirting,” Tony said indignantly but not very convincingly. “That’s… banter between teammates.”

“Uhuh,” Natasha said. “Of course it is.”

“Ugh, you’re a horrible woman, you know that?”

Natasha managed to look like a cat that had gotten the canary and the cream “Yes, I do.”

Tony waved a hand at her. “Go away. I have work to do.”

Natasha’s low laugh as she picked up her heels and glided out of the room told him that she knew he wasn’t really serious about his annoyance. That was also when he realised that she _had_ successfully distracted him from asking about her plans for their former teammates. He huffed but he wasn’t really annoyed. It was more morbid curiosity that made him want to know rather than any real interest but now he was going to be thinking about _Loki_ all afternoon so she really was an evil, evil woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the question you're going to ask - will there be more? My answer? Maybe. We'll see whether my muses chose to play ball.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some aftermath. In this case, Clint. He rediscovers his brain and makes a decision.

Clint would freely admit that he could be an idiot at times. He’d also freely admit that he could also be a complete jackass at times. The problem was that most of the times he’d been either an idiot or a jackass… or both… he’d been working with SHIELD and he’d been protected from the consequences of his actions beyond whatever disciplinary action SHIELD wanted to take and those were rarely very onerous because he was usually very good at his job. The problem he had now was that he didn’t work for SHIELD anymore and thus the consequences of his actions were for him to bear alone.

He wasn’t very good at it.

Retirement hadn’t agreed with him. He’d wanted it to. God knows he’d wanted it to. Laura had put up with a hell of a lot during his career with SHIELD and he’d wanted to retire so she didn’t have to wonder if he was going to come back this time. But he’d hated it. Not Laura and definitely not his kids but the inactivity and the boredom. When Steve had called, he hadn’t asked any questions, just leapt into action. He’d have done the same if Tony had called him first and he knew part of his animosity towards the billionaire was because Tony hadn’t called him. He’d taken it to mean that Tony thought he was past it and useless. Unnecessary. Unneeded.

Which, when he actually stopped and thought about it, was a pretty stupid thing to think. He’d seen the look in Tony’s eyes when they’d all taken shelter at the farm during the Ultron fiasco. He’d been surprised, sure, but there had been a strange longing there that Clint hadn’t really understood at the time. He wasn’t sure he really understood it entirely now but he did understand enough to know that Tony didn’t call because Clint had retired and Tony would never have considered taking Clint away from his kids unless the world was ending.

Which it hadn’t been. And now that he had time to think, Clint actually kind of resented Steve for dragging him away when the world wasn’t ending.

Then he felt stupid again because he was the one who’d said yes. Steve hadn’t forced him.

He sighed and stared out over the darkened Compound. He’d found a little hidey-hole on the roof. It was a perfect spot for him. Good lines of sight, up as high as possible and there was even some little nooks and crannies where he could store things. Just like it had been designed for him to find and use. Which considering who had designed and built the Compound was probably very true.

He couldn’t be inside right now. When Natasha had thrown those envelopes on the floor and left with her open threat in her wake, nobody had really wanted to pick them up. In the end, Scott had been the one to do it, handing out envelopes to those named on the front. Clint had taken his without a comment and with a nasty, sinking suspicion he knew what was in it. When Scott had finished, there had been one envelope left. This one hadn’t had any names on it and Scott had frowned at it for a moment before opening it and pulling out a sheaf of photographs. 

None of them had been able to see them at first but they had seen Scott’s face go pale and then very green as he stared at the topmost picture. The man had finally looked up and his gaze had gone unerringly to Steve. It had been the wealth of betrayal, horror and burgeoning anger that had made Clint and Sam move over to either side of Scott.

It had only been Clint’s long career as a SHIELD agent that had allowed him to remain impassive – externally anyway. Sam had no such training. He’d made a low sound of shock and turned an unpleasant grey colour before wavering momentarily. He’d braced himself against Scott’s shoulder as Scott began to flip through the photos. Each was as horrifying as the last, in some cases even more so, and it was obvious that these weren’t clandestine shots, taken on someone’s cell phone. These were clear, detailed, high-definition photographs, the kind that were often tendered in court cases as evidence. Clint had no doubt that was why they’d been taken – just in case their subject didn’t survive and photographic evidence of the mortal injuries he’d received were needed.

The last photo was the one to break through Clint’s reserve. It had clearly been taken on the operating table and every single one of Tony’s injuries could be seen clearly. Both hands were gone, as was one foot. Half of the toes on the other foot were gone as well. Parts of Tony’s face were clearly frostbitten but the doctors hadn’t touched those other than slather some sort of salve or cream over them. The man looked drawn and pained even in drugged unconsciousness and Clint wasn’t surprised. The photo had been taken mid-operation and it was clear that the surgeons were putting the arc reactor back in Tony’s chest. What was also very, very clear was the bruised gash that ran across Tony’s chest in a very distinctive curve. A very familiar curve. And undoubtedly the reason why the arc reactor was going back in.

“Steve,” Sam had said then with a calmness that belied his grey face and the way he was shaking. “You told us Stark was fine when you left him in Siberia.”

Steve frowned. “He was. He was talking. He was fine.”

“You also told us that he attacked you,” Sam continued. “That he snapped and attacked you.”

Steve hesitated for a moment. “He… he did.”

Sam looked up, his eyes now hard. “So you’re saying Natasha was lying just then? That Stark was fine and unharmed?”

Now Steve just looked annoyed. “You know how Tony likes to exaggerate everything.”

Sam’s head went up and he snatched the photos out of Scott’s hands. “I somehow don’t think _these_ are an exaggeration.” 

He hurled the photos at Steve, sending them scattering over the floor at his feet. Most of them ended up face up, including that damning one on the operating table. Steve stared down at them, his face going pale, but Sam didn’t wait. He snatched up his bag and stormed into the Compound, though Clint didn’t know where he was going to go or do, given there was no power. Scott, however, followed him and Clint decided to do the same.

When he found Sam and Scott, they were hunched over Sam’s tablet. “What are you doing?”

“Watching those damn videos,” Sam said, his voice hard as diamond. “We all let Steve convince us they weren’t worth watching back in Wakanda. Well, I’m thinking we _should_ watch them.”

Clint nodded and came over to join them. It wasn’t difficult to find the videos and they were as horrifying as the photos. Not just for what they saw but for what they meant. Steve had lied to them. Steve had told less than half a story when they’d regrouped in Wakanda, letting them believe that Tony had not gone to Siberia as a friend, that Tony had betrayed Steve and Barnes, attacked them for no reason. That was quite obviously untrue. 

The three men were silent when the videos finally finished then Scott shoved his way to his feet. He looked decidedly green as he stared at them. 

“I need…” He looked around desperately. “I need to throw up.”

Sam rose as well, discarding the tablet on the couch. “There’s a bathroom…”

He hurriedly ushered Scott through the door to where their old rooms had been. Clint watched them go then snatched up the tablet and made his way up to the roof.

He’d been up on the roof ever since. He’d watched the videos a few more times, forcing himself into his agent persona to objectively analyse them. It didn’t make them any better and it made him feel more and more stupid. He might not have known Tony well but he _had_ known Natasha. She’d been on Tony’s side and that should have been all he needed to know about where his loyalties should lie.

He sighed and pulled out the cell phone he’d been given by T’Challa. He stared at it for a moment then punched in a familiar phone number.

“Hello, Clint,” came Natasha’s voice, cool and dry.

Clint blinked. “How’d you know?”

“T’Challa sent us a list of the phone numbers,” she replied. “Mostly so that FRIDAY could block any calls from them that came to Tony.”

Clint nodded to himself. That made sense. “We fucked up, didn’t we?”

“ _No_ , really?” Natasha said with deep sarcasm. “You finally figured that out, did you?”

“Yeah,” Clint said with another sigh. “Why’d you give us those photos?”

“Why do you think?”

“To show us what they did?”

“And?”

Clint frowned as something occurred to him. “You knew we hadn’t seen the videos.”

Natasha snorted. “You must be the only people on earth who haven’t but yes, we did. T’Challa kept us informed.”

“Oh,” Clint said. He was silent for a moment. “Tash?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“What do you want to do?” Natasha asked. She almost sounded kind.

“Go back in time and make a better decision,” Clint replied.

“How about something realistic?”

Clint slumped down where he was sitting. “Fucked if I know. Stark’s never going to forgive us after _that_.”

“Why should he?” Natasha said tartly. “Besides, forgiveness usually requires some sort of apology and atonement first.”

“Is that what you did?” Clint snapped as his guilt got the better of him for a moment.

“Yes.”

Natasha’s blunt reply brought him back down to earth and he ran a hand down his face.

“The other envelope,” he said. “It’s from Laura, isn’t it?”

“What do you think?” Natasha said dryly. “You left her in the lurch, without a single word. You didn’t really think she was going to take that lying down, did you?”

Clint grimaced and he scrubbed his face again. “Is she okay?”

“She’s… better,” Natasha said after a short pause. “Tony helped her.”

Clint licked his lips and swallowed the automatic response that was on the tip of his tongue. He was pretty sure the time for making stupid comments about Tony was over and that if he made another one now, Natasha would find some way to reach down the phone and hurt some part of him he’d rather remain unhurt.

“Is Tony… okay?” he finally ventured.

Natasha snorted. “Define okay.”

“You know what I mean,” Clint said with exasperation.

“I do,” Natasha said. “I’m just not sure why you care.”

Clint was silent for a long moment. “Was I that bad?”

“Yeah, Clint, you were.”

Clint leaned back and rested his head against the wall. He stared up at the stars. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“You’re asking me that?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“I can’t answer that question for you,” Natasha said. “You made your choice.”

“Can I change my mind?”

There was an interesting silence on the other end of the phone. Clint kept watching the stars as he waited for Natasha to make a decision on what she was going to say next. He was sure whatever it was would already have some sort of approval from Tony and the rest of the Sentinels. He was aware in the back of his mind that Natasha giving them those photos was a ploy on her behalf. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was up to beyond shaking everything up but he’d decided he didn’t really care.

“That depends on why you’re changing it?” she finally said.

“Because I suck,” Clint replied. “And I’ve finally realised that.”

“Mmm,” Natasha said. “And what do you want to do with this change of mind?”

“Get the hell out of the madhouse,” Clint said. “After that… I don’t know. I’m guessing Laura won’t take me back. Think the new SHIELD would hire me again?”

“You don’t want to join the Sentinels?” Natasha asked, her tone light and coy.

“Sure,” Clint said. “But I’m pretty sure they won’t have me.”

“Nice to know you actually have started using your brain.”

“Tash,” Clint mock-whined.

“I’m sending you an address,” she said with a chuckle. “If you’re serious about wanting to make amends, go there and we’ll see what we can do.”

“Thanks, Tash,” Clint said.

“Mmhmm,” she said before hanging up.

Clint tucked the phone into his pockets and stared up at the stars. It was nice up here and he didn’t really want to go back inside and face the now poisonous atmosphere inside. He would though. He wanted to at least give Sam and Scott a chance to make their own decision. He knew Natasha wouldn’t be surprised if there were two more people at the house than she expected and if Sam and Scott had opened their eyes and brains, well, Clint wasn’t above giving them their chance to get out.

**Author's Note:**

> Since I'm sure I'll get asked the question - I'm not sure if I will write more for this fic. I do have ideas swirling around though so we'll see what happens.


End file.
